it has been a very long day for me. i left linz hoersching at 11:35 and arrived at the hotel at 05:00. this makes 12:00 local time. i got my first impression of japan at the departure hall for my flight vienna to narita. there were only asian people (besides five or six non-asian ones) most probably all japanese. another funny thing: one of them was reading "lost in translation", nice coincidence. then we all got on board. narrow seats, my legs are too long, but at least i had a seat next to the window. usually i consider flights as lost time, since i usually don't do any useful things (besides reading newspaper). i thought this would apply to this eleven hour flight too, but i was wrong. i did things that i already wanted to do several times, but never took the time to do them. so, the first thing was watching "chronicles of spiderwick", the second one was watching "10,000 B.C.", and the third one was watching "i am legend". though i fell asleep when watching this will smith movie. but two hours later i got woken up for breakfast, and guess what i could continue to do? right, they loop the films, so i (almost) finished "i am legend". i think i'm still missing the last five to ten minutes, but landing instead was ok too. oh, one more funny thing: from linz to vienna i crossed hagenberg. nice view from the airplane. but up to now i did not take a single photo. handling all the luggage, being really tired and most probably a little jet lagged kept me from getting out my cam. so, i was at the airport, got some money from the ATM (very important, since i did not pay for the hotel yet). and made my way through the airport to keisei line going to nippori, changing to joban line, and going to minami-senju. that's where my hotel is. on my way to the train-station a japanese woman asked me where i want to go. i told her to minami-senju and she asked the local conductor, and then, the three of us went to an elevator bringing me to my platform. on the train i read my printed out map, but this attracted another japanese man, asking me where i want to go. i told him minami-senju and he explained to me when to get off the train, etc. ok, i'm obviously a tourist (non-asian, big bags), and these people were so friendly - this definitely is a WTF? for a european. well, besides that loads of stereotypes have proven to be true: japanese tend to sleep a lot, even when they're standing in the train/metro. japanese type on their mobile-phones all the time, even when they're standing in the train/metro. japanese are friendly. japanese teens have school-uniforms. i witnessed my first earthquake here in tokyo. i was looking at the various floors of the hotel when suddenly, i was on floor 10 the ground was shaking. i looked out of the window, but the people on the streets did not seem to notice it. i was told tokyo inhabitants do not call this little shaking an earthquake. hmmmm... ok. i already saw a few shrines and gardens when looking out of the train-window, but no cats so far. i guess it's way too hot for them. my hotel-room has a air-conditioning too, yippieh. ah, yeah, and a wireless network. the room itself is very small ("3-tatami-mat") but sufficient for my needs. the toilets have a "western style" part and a "traditional style" part. i think i prefer the western style... it's now almost 13:00 local time (06:00 CEST) and i'll try to get to odaiba. this time i take my camera with me. but first, i'll take a shower.